Boat Jumble Season

[squidge]

Well its boat jumble season again, queing in the rain ( always seems to when i go ) with a cold north wind searing to the bone. Paying the extortionate £4 for the privilege of trapsing around stall after stall of tat and mostly unrecognisable motor and machine parts that even the scrap merchant would or probly has turned away.If you do find something of interest its usually almost the same price as a new part and not in "as new " condition.
At lease Chatham was at an interesting venue.Now moved.Has anyone found a bargin at these places ?I dont think that i ever have.
Will i be going to the next Boating Bootsale?
Bloomin right i will.

 

[Badger]

I have to say I absolutely love boat jumbles, the queen bee of which is obviously Beaulieu. I tend to buy bits and pieces for the spares box.I went to the Gosport one a couple of weekends ago and got a mirror on a telescopic stick and a magnet on a telescopic stick. Brillliant for recovering bolts from behind engines and screws from dark corners. Also bought some new warps etc. For this sort of stuff I think they are brilliant.Wouldn't buy like jackets, liferaft etc though. Mid Kent on Sunday looks like quite a big one ?

 

[snowleopard]

yes, i'm a dedicated jumbly.

i tend to buy from the ceap chandlers rater than the tat merchants and fences but i spent around £3k at jumbles when building my boat and reckoned to have saved 50% against retail prices. the best deal was a pair of new winches less than 1/2 price (saving £500)

 

[squidge]

Dont get me wrong i do enjoy mooching around the stalls,just never seem to find what im looking for.although did buy some soundproofing but i wasnt looking for that.Ive never been to the Beaulieu jumble but yes the mid Kent is quite a big event and when at the Historic dockyard it was on hard standing with the bonus of the surroundings made a good day out, they even supplied an old double decker to ferry you from the car park.I will pop along to the new venue on sunday and i am glad to hear that someone has been lucky and happy with their purchases.It dose worry me that if you do buy something fairly expensive ie GPS ,electronics ect, that you have no rights or no way to return them if faulty, or do you?

 

[snowleopard]

good points.

i always go with a shopping list and come back without most of the items but lots of other stuff.

i generally work on the assumption that if you can't prove it works there and then, it probably doesn't. less of a problem on the commercial stalls but i'd never buy electronics secondhand.

 

[squidge]

My faith is restored, Sundays mid Kent jumble was a winner and i broke my duck to have my first bargin,managed to pick up a hardly used sail for a fraction of the new price. And it didnt rain!
Hop Farm was a nice place but no hard standing so a bit muddy ,ok for me but the children tend to get a bit messy.
Im looking forward to the next at North Weald.

 

[FlyingSpud]

Were we at the same place?

In terms of stalls there was much less than at Chatham and a much higher percentage of the tat merchants.

It was muddy, the only saving grace was it wasn’t raining (Chatham was partly undercover). It reminded of a poorly run me local village boot sale.

The prices? I took the latest PBO with me and did not find a single price for anything that anyone would want to buy that I could not equal or beat in the adds (Who buys electronic gear from these places? You would need to be a remarkable optimist).

Oh well, rant over, I can quite enjoy just walking around boat stuff even if I don’t buy anything, but I certainly will not waste my time on mid Kent again. I didn’t get the impression the stall holders were very impressed either.

 

[tr7v8]

Ummm, interesting I went to the last Mid-Kent of last year and I found the same, piles of rusty old tat, damn expensive new stuff and in real terms very little to buy. Too much mud, as it peed down just before I got there!

 

[tr7v8]

Ummm, interesting I went to the last Mid-Kent of last year and I found the same, piles of rusty old tat, damn expensive new stuff and in real terms very little to buy. Too much mud, as it peed down just before I got there!

Jim
-------

 

[Guest]

what about the lovely hot dog @burger stands quing to get in no bogs two mile walk back to car rippped off for a bit of stainless, cant wait till next sunday,
chris

 

[squidge]

Yes it was smaller that Chatham and cannot compare , One of the things on my list was antifouling but as you say the prices were not any cheeper that the PBO ads and within a couple of pounds of my chandlers and at least with him i can order as much of the right colour as i need.Last year i did find some cheeper antifoul but ended up having to mix it all together in the same tub as it was all different shades even though the lables and colour codes matched.As for electronics one guy was selling what apeared to be a Garmin fish finder for less than £100 and was prepaired to haggle,although i didnt buy as i prefer to buy from a known retailer.
One worrying thing was a fairly large stall had what looked like an unused prop that may have suited my need fora 2 blade 13x8 LH.on inspection i was unsure of the shaft dia so asked for his phone number so that i could call during the week in order to buy it if still available.His reply was that he didnt have a number?
At that point i lost interest.
Buyer beware indeed.